IPMIPING(8)

📦
version 1.6.20 · 14 versions
, in arch rolling, centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9

💜 ipmiping — like, the IPMI ping, bestie

okay so real talk: this is the ipmiping page from the System Commands manual (section 8 ofc), and it's basically ping but for IPMI. yes. we're doing this. strap in 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ipmiping [OPTION...] destination

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so ipmiping slides into a remote host's DMs with an IPMI Get Channel Authentication Capabilities request datagram, and it's waiting for that IPMI Get Channel Authentication Capabilities response to come back. that's the whole vibe check 💅 — it's how you find out if a remote host is even serving IPMI, like, at all.

and the way the initial starting sequence number works? it's randomized. no cap. 🔥

then ipmiping returns 0 to the environment if it gets atleast 1 response from the remote host. otherwise? it exits with a value of 1. that's it. that's the whole scoring system, bestie 😭

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

here's the full menu, no skips, no cuts:

  • -h — outputs the help menu. ur little "what do I do now" button 🫶
  • -V — outputs the version. so u know what u got ✨
  • -c count — stop after sending count packets. like, you've done enough, queen, take a break 💅
  • -i interval — wait interval seconds between sending each packet. default is to wait one second between each packet ⏳
  • -I interface address — set the source address to the specified interface address. the argument can be a numeric IP address or a name of device 🧚
  • -t timeout — time to wait for a response, in seconds. default is five seconds ⭐
  • -v — verbose output. for when u literally need to know everything 👀
  • -s num — specify an initial starting sequence number. default is to use a random initial sequence number 🎲
  • -d — turn on debugging. for when things are giving broken and u need receipts 💀
  • -r version — specify the IPMI version. available options are "1.5" and "2.0". default is to use "1.5". note that packets will always be sent with the IPMI 1.5 protocol, but the IPMI 1.5 vs IPMI 2.0 relevant fields will be communicated in the Get Channel Authentication Capabilities datagram depending on user choice 🌈
pro tip from the page itself: that -r note is important, ok? the wire protocol is 1.5 no matter what. the version you pick just changes which fields get talked about inside the datagram. don't @ me, it's literally what it says 🫶

💀 KNOWN ISSUES 💀

okay so this is the part where we're honest with each other.

it has been observed that some remote BMCs can get "confused" and delay packet responses if duplicate packets (with duplicate sequence numbers) are sent in succession very quickly. and like... there's no known way to cleanly deal with a "confused" BMC other than to wait awhile. that's it. that's the fix. just wait. 🙈

also, unlike ping(8), local network devices (e.g. 127.0.0.1) cannot be "pinged". not a vibe, but it's real, so. 😭

🍓 REPORTING BUGS 🍓

found a bug? spill it to <freeipmi-users@gnu.org> or <freeipmi-devel@gnu.org>. the group chat is open 📬

Copyright (C) 2007-2015 Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. Copyright (C) 2003-2007 The Regents of the University of California.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. 🩷

🌟 ORIGIN 🌟

command and manpage based off ping(8). yeah, it's giving "inspired by an icon" ✨

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

and the link, which we're keeping verbatim: http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/

and that's the whole page, bestie!! go forth and ping some IPMI hosts, u absolute legend 🫶

this was ipmiping 1.6.20, dated 2026-10-05 — mwah, catch u next manual page 💋🎀
📦 where this page comes from